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NXT TakeOver: Dallas.


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Just now, sydneybrown said:

Yes, I'm sure that's the famous match they borrowed the finish from...

Not saying it was, just where I immediately recognized it from considering Joe was involved in the same move.

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2 minutes ago, sydneybrown said:

Yes, I'm sure that's the famous match they borrowed the finish from...

So many of his strange opinions make sense now!

As for ranking the matches, I'd go:

***** for Nakamura/Zayn

****1/4 for Joe/Balor

***1/2 for the tag

***1/4 for Bayley/Asuka

**1/2 for Aries/Corbin

Great show and up there with Ultima Lucha for best since Money in the Bank 2011. 

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3 minutes ago, El Dragon said:

I think you are being way too low on Bayley/Asuka. Then again, I don't do star ratings, cause who has time for it? 

Maybe it's lingering bitterness from MM, but so much of Bayley's offense pisses me off and kills my suspension of disbelief. Asuka had to stand in the corner for an eternity so she could get her inflatable dude pose in. I was fully expecting and hoping for an elbow or kick counter but nope. The finish was excellent but Bayley taking it to Asuka early on was something I just wasn't buying at all after they've built up Asuka as a murderer and Bayley almost always fights from underneath against strong opposition. There were some moments of hesitation and awkwardness too, but nothing too dramatic. The crowd was kind of burned out from the wonders that they just beheld. 

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1 minute ago, JCM said:

The best part about Zayn/Nakamura was it had no finisher kick outs. Yes WWE you can have a great match without spamming fucking finisher kick outs.

AAAAAaaand only one finisher reversal for either guy IIRC. You don't have to do 10 half-assed, overly choreographed finisher slip-outs either.

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I guess it made a certain sense to put Aries over in his debut, but at some point, they have to start elevating Corbin.  Tonight's never-ending nerve pinch notwithstanding, he's proven over the last 6 months that he's game for more.  I don't see what it helps to have him dropping a fall to a guy who's going to be over with the crowd regardless.

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Was Aries over though? They seemed pretty lukewarm for him. They were awfully quiet during the match. Aries seemed a stride or two off the pace. Hopefully it's just rust or whatever.

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1 minute ago, Oyaji said:

Maybe it's lingering bitterness from MM, but so much of Bayley's offense pisses me off and kills my suspension of disbelief. Asuka had to stand in the corner for an eternity so she could get her inflatable dude pose in. I was fully expecting and hoping for an elbow or kick counter but nope. The finish was excellent but Bayley taking it to Asuka early on was something I just wasn't buying at all after they've built up Asuka as a murderer and Bayley almost always fights from underneath against strong opposition. There were some moments of hesitation and awkwardness too, but nothing too dramatic. The crowd was kind of burned out from the wonders that they just beheld. 

 

They were not THAT burnt out though. I've seen that in some places. They were not as hot as they were for the previous match sure, but that crowd was pretty damn loud and invested. 

 

Generally, most people who have been saying that have then been really negative on the match, so I kinda am just guessing they were burned out and just trying to justify it as everyone else was too.

 

As for the offense thing? Meh. Emma went right after Asuka the same way. The point I always felt with Asuka wasn't that she was super duper  tough, it's just that she has incredibly destructive offense.

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This isn't just still-hyped-up reaction, but that was the best show I've ever seen. Counting tv, ppv, live. There wasn't any moment where I thought it was a decent time to sneak off and do anything. Glued the entire time. 

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1 minute ago, Oyaji said:

Was Aries over though? They seemed pretty lukewarm for him. They were awfully quiet during the match. Aries seemed a stride or two off the pace. Hopefully it's just rust or whatever.

 

Yeah, he was pretty over. Let's also be blunt in mentioning how over everyone else was on this card. Every other match had at least one person the crowd was into to a huge degree. It was the least loud match on the card, but it certainly wasn't one nobody gave a shit about or anything.

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Just as well they pushed Samson-Crews into dark match land. That would have stuck out like a sore thumb tonight. 

AA/Revival would have been kicked around as a WWE MOTYC if the rest of the show hadn't happened. *** 1/2

Here's my biggest problem with Aries/Corbin: I can't really tell what my takeaway from that match is supposed to be. The story of every other match on the card was told so well that it's crystal-clear. What is it about Aries that made him better than Corbin? I probably wouldn't bitch about this match on any other WWE card...ever, really. ** 1/4

Nakamura/Zayn. Holy fucking shit. That was 20+minutes of awesome and it felt like they were going at a high tempo throughout. "Fight forever" indeed. That was the best match I've ever seen Zayn in (better than any of his matches with Steen, better than the ones with Cesaro,) and if it's not the best Nakamura match I've seen, it sure the fuck isn't far off. I really can't find any flaw in this match. (And if you can, keep it to yourself you puppy-kicking bastard) *****

Bayley/Asuka. God how nervous must they have been trying tov follow the last match? They sure the heel didn't look it! This was a very good match, but I think they were saved by the fact that Bayley is the most universally loved character in the company. Her spending most of the match wrestling from underneath brought the crowd way into it. There's a lot of parallels you can draw between this match and the previous one, though that does these two a bit of a disservice. ****

Balor/Joe. Talk about turning a negative into a positive. This match wasn't going to be as good as Zayn/Nak, and it wasn't going to have the raw emotion of Bayley's match, but that blood and even the cleanup made it feel more out of control. It felt vicious in a way no amount of garbage wrestling can substitute for.  I've also gotta say, the bitching about Balor is getting tiresome, and tonight it was just dumb. Yes, Joe was the better off the two, but Joe was fucking BEASTLY tonight. Right up there with Zayn and Asuka for best non-Nakamura guy on the show. Meanwhile, we finally saw Balor do what we've been wanting him to do since his debut: really differentiate Demon Balor from Finn Balor. *** 3/4

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Joe took a while to get the TNA stank off him too. Aries, albeit one of TNA's more popular guys isn't an AJ Styles or a Joe, also I suspect the crowd weren't so hot due to the comedown of the opener and Corbin's constant pinch which I wasn't particularly mad at it, I got a kick out of Corbin's trash talk being clearly audible, ''sit down pig boy'' being one of his highlights. 

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The crowd was pretty dead during the long, drawn out heat portion of the Corbin/Aries match, I thought. Aries' comeback was a bit weird too. He just seemed really nonchalant, which isn't how WWE babyfaces are supposed to behave. I'm not craving for my three clotheslines and a slam or anything of that nature, but you've got to give me some desperation there. 

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2 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Was Aries over though? They seemed pretty lukewarm for him. They were awfully quiet during the match. Aries seemed a stride or two off the pace. Hopefully it's just rust or whatever.

He was the guy who was least over in the building.  The crowd treated him like just another guy, but they treated everyone else on the card like their personal favorite wrestlers.  I thought he did an admirable job keeping the crowd engaged even though he wasn't getting the chants and cheers everyone else was getting.

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I was surprised Aries won.  I was expecting Corbin to win that and I think maybe he should have but still a fun match.  It's crazy, I think AA/Revival would have been MOTN on almost any card and tonight it had to settle for 4th.  I think Joe himself elevated the main into something I was not expecting. I didn't even care after I had watched the two matches before it but Joe was so fucking great that I was glued to my screen 30 seconds in. 

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Cristobal, strange that you thought the Asuka/Bayley match had more emotion than the main event. Joe was all emotion and Balor showed the most passion I've ever seen from him. Joe was a fucking psychological force in that match. So many nuances and improvisations. Balor's guttural screams were something brand new and completely appropriate.

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1 minute ago, supremebve said:

He was the guy who was least over in the building.  The crowd treated him like just another guy, but they treated everyone else on the card like their personal favorite wrestlers.  I thought he did an admirable job keeping the crowd engaged even though he wasn't getting the chants and cheers everyone else was getting.

Speaking only for myself, I don't watch TNA or ROH, so I had never really seen him work. So I was more figuring him out and watching the match rather than having a vested emotional interest in Aries

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I just want to say that I love you all. You're all awesome wrestling fans and this was a fucking MONSTER of a show. So many good vibes from this fucking thing. My brain is still scattershot trying to recall the night. There were some GREAT little things in there too, like Graves mentioning MOTHERFUCKING KAWADA~! Holy shit.

What else, I mean, I'm not sure what else to say about Nak vs Zayn other than it was perfect. While Joe vs. Finn wasn't perfect and that finish wasn't what I had in mind, it was still a great match. I was initially annoyed and pissed about the stoppages, but like you all said, it actually added to the insanity and gave us a match where Joe and Finn just fucking dropped bombs on each other. One of the slaps from Joe to Finn's head looked like it slapped all of the sweat out of Finn's hair. It was a really cool visual.

Man, the Fight Forever chant. Put THAT on a t-shirt. I will buy it. Fuck yeah. Fight Forever!

Ugh, it's just so hard to think or say much, but it was all awesome.

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19 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

So many of his strange opinions make sense now!

As for ranking the matches, I'd go:

***** for Nakamura/Zayn

****1/4 for Joe/Balor

***1/2 for the tag

***1/4 for Bayley/Asuka

**1/2 for Aries/Corbin

Great show and up there with Ultima Lucha for best since Money in the Bank 2011. 

God, I didn't realize until this post that there were only 5 matches. And I don't feel shortchanged one bit.

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